Brown Calls On Lawmakers To Approve Pre-K

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown sits on a panel that testified in favor of the Pre-K bill today before the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. (WBAL's Robert Lang)

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown talks about why there is the need to expand pre-kindergarten. Download This File

Two legislative committees took up a bill today that would expand prekindergarten to 1,600 more children.

The Senate's Budget and Taxation Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on the bill.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has budgeted $4.3 million for the project. It would extend prekindergarten to children who are up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level.

Local school systems are currently required to offer public pre-K to 4-year-olds whose families are at or below 185 percent of federal poverty guidelines. In the 2012-13 school year, 26,402 children were enrolled in public school pre-K.

As part of his campaign to succeed O'Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown is pushing to make prekindergarten universal in Maryland by 2018.

Brown said the program would be voluntary, and he believes, that the state can use revenues from casino gambling to pay for the program.

Brown says studies have shown that 4-year-olds who enroll in half-day pre-K programs will do better in school as they get older.

Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler, who is one of Brown's rivals for governor, supports phasing in a statewide Pre-K progra.

Another Democratic candidate for governor, Montgomery County Delegate Heather Mizeur, believes the state can use the tax revenue collected from marijuana, if the state legalizes it, to pay for pre-K.